QUALCOMM Awarded 3G Licenses in Australia’s Auctions
Following its success in Mexico, Chile and Brazil, QUALCOMM
Inc. now can add Australia to its list of countries in which
it has been awarded licenses in spectrum auctions. The company said
that its Australian subsidiary, 3G Investments (Australia) Pty
Limited won 2x10 MHz licenses in the country’s 3G wireless
spectrum auctions for $79-million. The licenses cover an area in
eight urban centers, including Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane. The
company says that plans are underway to deploy cdma2000 1x/1xEV
networks with commercial 3G service by 2002.
The 12.3 million potential customers can expect to be wooed by
high-data rate technology offering advanced Web browsing, e-mail,
file downloads, and applications such as streaming video, Internet
games, and location-based services such as telematics.
"QUALCOMM is a strong believer in the growth prospects of
CDMA in the Australian market and entered the latest auctions
committed to acquiring appropriate spectrum to support a
high-quality, high-capacity cdma2000 1x/1xEV system," said Dr.
Irwin Mark Jacobs, chairman and CEO, QUALCOMM. "cdma2000 1x and
1xEV combine time-to-market and cost advantages with the highest
performance and quality for voice and broadband data."
Strengths of cdma2000 1xEV
- Supports peak data rates of up to 2.4 Mbps in a standard 1.25
MHz frequency channel
- Can be overlaid on a variety of voice networks or operate as a
stand-alone system
- Compatible with cdmaOne and cdma 2000 1x networks
- Offers 3G data services in accordance with IMT-2000
requirements
According to a white
paper released by the San Diego company, cdma2000 1xEV offers
operators the lowest cost per bit transmitted: Users consuming 200
megabytes of data per month would cost a operator with cdma2000 1xEV
$4 per month versus $14 with W-CDMA or $83 with GPRS.
For more information: http://www.qualcomm.com/cda/pr/view/0,1800,574,00.html
Mobileinfo Comments and Advisory: We announce this
news not for counting the number of countries a particular network
technology supplier has got licenses in. cdma2000 1xEV is of great
interest to us if it can validate the claims that Qualcomm is making
in terms of the cost of delivering 3G service. We would
caution readers that Qualcomm's white paper is somewhat biased and
that it does not include all capital or operating costs.
Nonetheless, it is a well-written document and we encourage other
vendors to come forward their case. In this respect, we applaud
Qualcomm.
